Pushy French are world's worst tourists: study

[smokey the elder]

I don't think it's fair to tar a group with a broad brush. I found, many years ago, when I tried out my college German in Germany the folks liked the attempt. I bet my accent was terrible! I think for the most part if you can say, Hello, goodbye, please and thank you in a language that can get one pretty far.

I hope all these line jumpers don't go to Disney World or Universal Orlando...line jumpers are VERY frowned upon!

[Kirsten]

I live way over by Trier! In my experience so far, I will speak German the best I can and they will answer me in English. Maybe because I live near a US military base?? I've only met a couple of people who I could not understand at all, even with asking them to speak slowly, but we managed to communicate well enough with hand gestures I love Germany

I never visited Trier (it's about 375 km away from where I live) but it must be a beautiful city. One of the oldest towns in Germany, with a strong Roman background and influence...
Yes, could be very well that the people there are used to the US people on the military base and that's why they speak English with you.

Glad that you like Germany! However, the weather is really awful this spring, usually it's not that bad!

Sirrahsim, I agree that German is difficult. In my case it's because of the grammer. I do understand a lot, though.

Randi, I used to be on holiday in Denmark many times when I was younger, and I always found that most Danes spoke an excellent German - with a cute accent, of course!

In the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, there are signs asking you to not plant your heathen ass on the benches reserved for moslems. One German lady was sitting right next to the sign. Meanwhile, on the floor of the mosque, a German was pretending to pray moslem-style, while he got his son to video him.

I agree that was disrespectful. If I was there, I would have been ashamed of my fellow countrymen... However, not all Germans are like that, there are many who respect foreign cultures.

This afternoon I took the boys to the park and there was a lady there with her son who was speaking a language I couldn't identify. After a little gesturing and broken German we figured out that we each spoke a (VERY!) little bit of German and French.

Maybe they were from Luxembourg oder Belgium? These countries are very close to where you live now...

Kirsten

[Sirrahsim]

Yes they very well could have been from Luxembourg or Belgium! That didn't even occur to silly me